Margaret Chasteen could hardly catch a breath as she discussed the good news already coming the way of Newport Municipal Utility District. Last Tuesday, the voters approved the largest bond authorization for the growing community in their history, a $110 million request. Chasteen wanted to address how they’re going to handle that amount of money.
“Our board is extremely grateful to the residents of Newport for passing the bond by more than 52 percent,” said Chasteen, who is president of the Newport MUD. “I really think that they understood that this was something that was needed and in the last five years residents have gotten to know the board a little bit more personally and they trust us.”
Chasteen said the work done with this bond will long outlive her and set up the district with strength in the future.
She explained that many MUD districts have forgone major repairs and upgrades because they didn’t want to raise taxes.
“In the meantime, they fell so far behind that they need will require larger bonds to catch up,” she said.
Newport’s infrastructure is between 50-60 years old but has been well maintained.
“What this will do is set up Newport residents with help on their home equity higher than the surrounding neighborhoods because they have superior water and will help if they decide to upgrade and sell their homes,” she said.
The board has put the capital improvement plan (CIP) on the front page of their website and will be updated every month with the new projects underway and the ones that have been completed to demonstrate to taxpayers where the money is going.
She also announced that the district would be switching to a Purifics water plant. According to their website, Purifics offers a filter destroy and recover process that has a zero liquid discharge, smaller footprint, and five times the flux.
“Since it will require a minimal amount of chemicals, it will bring our costs down, not only with the amount of chemicals, but also reduce the number of operators by almost half,” she said.
In other good news, the board was able to negotiate a new contract with their operator Si Environmental LLC that will save the district approximately another $400,000.
“The contract goes into effect on Jan. 1,” Chasteen said.
The district anticipates drawing down a little over $10 million in the first year to complete projects.
“We want to balance it out as much as possible so we can keep taxes as low as possible,” she said.
The tax rate for the district will not change this year.
For more information on the bond and how it’s being spent, Chasteen invited the public to their meetings which are held regularly on the third Thursday of the month at 4:30 p.m. at the community center.